Guide · Sleep after nights

How to sleep after a night shift

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The short answer

Get to bed soon after you get home, in a room as dark, quiet and cool as you can make it, and keep bright morning light out of your eyes on the way there. Day sleep after a night is often shorter than a night’s sleep, so plan a nap before your next shift to make up the rest. Keep caffeine to the early part of the shift.

Below is what the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) teaches nurses about day sleep, and what a panel of 55 sleep and shift-work experts agreed in 2023, step by step, with the reason for each.

Why sleeping after a night shift is hard

Your body clock keeps time on a roughly 24-hour cycle, and light is its main signal. After a night at work it still takes the morning for daytime, so you are trying to sleep when your body expects to be awake, in daylight that NIOSH notes tends to wake you.1 NIOSH also points out that sleep in the day tends to be lighter than sleep at night, so noise disturbs it more.2

A few nights in a row rarely changes that. In a study of 21 ICU nurses and doctors, none showed even partial adaptation to nights after three or four in a row, and some people’s clocks moved the opposite way.3 So for most rosters the goal is to protect the sleep you can get, not to turn yourself into a night person.

Seven steps for the sleep after a night shift

  1. Keep morning light out of your eyes on the way home

    Bright light after a night shift tells your body clock it is daytime. NIOSH suggests dark, wraparound sunglasses put on before you leave work and kept on until you are in your dark bedroom.1 The 2023 guidelines also name sunglasses on the drive home as a way to limit bright light before bed.4 Only wear a pair you can see the road clearly through. If it is still dark when you drive, you do not need them.

  2. Go to bed soon after you get home

    NIOSH’s advice is to sleep as soon as you get home, for example at 8 a.m.5 Keep the time between the front door and the bed short and dim. If you are hungry, have something light rather than a heavy meal, and dim your phone screen.4

  3. Make the room very dark

    NIOSH’s standard is a room so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your eyes, or an eye mask.1 Use blackout blinds or curtains, or cover the window, and block the light under the door too.

  4. Make it quiet and cool

    Earplugs or a white-noise machine for the noise.1 For temperature, the 2023 guidelines suggest a comfortably cool room, about 16–20 °C (60–68 °F), with some fresh air.4

  5. Stop your phone waking you, but keep your alarm

    NIOSH lists preventing the phone from waking you as part of the sleep plan.1 Silence calls and notifications with your phone’s sleep or Do Not Disturb mode, then check that your alarm still rings while it is on.

  6. Tell the people at home

    Family and housemates can keep the house quiet and know not to wake you, NIOSH notes,2 and the 2023 guidelines suggest telling friends, family and neighbours your sleep schedule.4

  7. Keep caffeine to the early part of the shift

    Caffeine’s effects last for hours and vary from person to person.4 In one study, a large dose of caffeine (400 mg) taken six hours before bed still cut sleep, measured at home, by more than an hour.6 A review of 24 studies found caffeine cut total sleep by about 45 minutes on average, and suggested a typical coffee at least 8.8 hours before bed.7 The earlier your last cup, the less of it is still working when you lie down.

Plan the rest of your sleep as a nap

With daylight and noise working against it, day sleep often falls short of a full night. The 2023 guidelines suggest aiming for 7 to 9 hours of sleep in every 24, and they count a main sleep plus shorter sleeps.4 So a nap in the afternoon or early evening, before you leave for the next shift, is the second half of the plan rather than a bonus. Napping before a night shift covers how long and when.

Before you drive home

If you are very sleepy, NIOSH’s advice is not to drive: get a lift from someone, take a taxi or public transport, or take some caffeine and then a short nap before you set off.1

It helps to know how long you have been awake. In a classic study, after 17 hours awake people did about as badly on a coordination test as at a blood alcohol level of 0.05%, and after 24 hours as at 0.10%.8 If you woke at 6 a.m. before a 7 p.m. shift, you have been awake 25 hours when it ends at 7 a.m. That is why the nap before a first night matters so much.

Long runs of nights are different

On permanent nights or a long run of them, it can be worth moving your body clock part of the way. In a study of simulated permanent night work, timed bright light during the shift, dark sunglasses outside and sleep in a dark room were used to move the body clock part of the way towards nights. People whose clocks did shift part way had much less fatigue, and better mood and performance, on the night shifts.9 It depends on keeping the same sleep times every day, days off included, which is why it rarely fits a rotating roster.

This is general information, not medical advice.

If you often cannot sleep even when you have the chance, are very sleepy at work or on the road, or your sleep is affecting your health, talk to your doctor. The 2023 guidelines suggest getting advice if sleep problems happen more than three times a week for several weeks.4

Questions nurses ask

How long should I sleep after a night shift?

Sleep researchers suggest aiming for 7 to 9 hours of sleep in every 24, and it does not have to be in one go: a main sleep after the shift plus a nap before the next one both count.4 Day sleep is often shorter than night sleep, which is why the nap matters.

Should I stay up all day after a night shift so I sleep at night?

Not between night shifts. NIOSH’s training for nurses advises against staying awake all day before or after a block of nights.5 After your last night, the usual advice is a short sleep in the morning and an ordinary or slightly earlier bedtime that night. Switching from nights back to days has the steps.

Do sunglasses help you sleep after a night shift?

Bright light is what sets the body clock, so shift-work sleep guidelines suggest limiting it before bed, including wearing sunglasses on the drive home. The experts behind those guidelines noted that this needs more research alongside road safety,4 so only wear a pair you can see the road clearly through.

When should I stop drinking coffee before sleeping after a night shift?

As early in the shift as you can manage. A review of 24 studies suggested a typical coffee at least 8.8 hours before bed,7 and one study found caffeine taken six hours before bed still cut sleep by more than an hour.6

From your roster

How Post Nights plans this from your roster

Post Nights reads the shifts you actually work and places each of these steps for you, every night of the block:

  • when to be in bed after the shift, and for how long;
  • the nap before the next night;
  • sunglasses before you leave, and a last-coffee time;
  • how long you will have been awake by the drive home.

The times come from a published model of the body clock, accurate to about an hour in laboratory studies that measured the light people saw. Yours is estimated from your roster, which is less precise, so every time in the app is a window rather than a minute.

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More guides

GuideSwitching from nights back to daysThe day after your last night, step by step. GuideNapping before a night shiftHow long, when, and what to do about grogginess.

Sources

  1. NIOSH. Training for Nurses on Shift Work and Long Work Hours (DHHS (NIOSH) Publication 2015-115), module 9, “Coping with the night and evening shifts”: light and the drive home and the bedroom.
  2. NIOSH. Training for Nurses on Shift Work and Long Work Hours, module 10, “Tell your family and friends what they can do to help”. archive.cdc.gov
  3. Stone JE, Sletten TL, Magee M, et al. Temporal dynamics of circadian phase shifting response to consecutive night shifts in healthcare workers: role of light–dark exposure. Journal of Physiology 2018;596(12):2381–2395. doi.org/10.1113/JP275589
  4. Shriane AE, Rigney G, Ferguson SA, Bin YS, Vincent GE. Healthy sleep practices for shift workers: consensus sleep hygiene guidelines using a Delphi methodology. Sleep 2023;46(12):zsad182. doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsad182 (free full text: PMC10710992)
  5. NIOSH. Training for Nurses on Shift Work and Long Work Hours, module 9, “Sleep (continued)”. archive.cdc.gov
  6. Drake C, Roehrs T, Shambroom J, Roth T. Caffeine effects on sleep taken 0, 3, or 6 hours before going to bed. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 2013;9(11):1195–1200. doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.3170
  7. Gardiner C, Weakley J, Burke LM, et al. The effect of caffeine on subsequent sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews 2023;69:101764. doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2023.101764
  8. Dawson D, Reid K. Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature 1997;388:235. doi.org/10.1038/40775
  9. Smith MR, Fogg LF, Eastman CI. A compromise circadian phase position for permanent night work improves mood, fatigue, and performance. Sleep 2009;32(11):1481–1489. doi.org/10.1093/sleep/32.11.1481